Thomas Abbt

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Thomas Abbt

Thomas Abbt (25 November 1738 3 November 1766) was a German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands....
mathematician

Mathematician

A mathematician is a person whose primary area of study and/or research is the field of mathematics....
and writer.

Born in Ulm

Ulm

Ulm is a city in the Germany States of Germany of Baden-W?rttemberg, situated on the River Danube. The city, whose population is estimated at 120,000 , forms an urban district of its own and is the administrative seat of the Alb-Donau ....
, Abbt visited a secondary school in Ulm, then moved in 1756 to study theology, philosophy and mathematics at the University of Halle, receiving a Magister degree in 1758. In 1760 he was appointed as an associate professor of philosophy at the University of Frankfurt (Oder), where he wrote his most well-known work Vom Tode für's Vaterland (1761).

This highly patriotic tract thematises Frederick II

Frederick II of Prussia

Frederick II was a monarch of Kingdom of Prussia from the House of Hohenzollern. In his role as a prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire, he was Frederick IV of Margraviate of Brandenburg....
's defeat at Kunersdorf

Battle of Kunersdorf

The Battle of Kunersdorf was Frederick II of Prussia most devastating defeat. On August 12, 1759, near Kunowice, east of Frankfurt , 50,900 Kingdom of Prussia were defeated by a combined army of 41,000 Russian Empire and 18,500 Habsburg Monarchy under Pyotr Saltykov while Ernst Gideon Freiherr von Laudon commanded Austrian cavalry....
.

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Encyclopedia

Thomas Abbt (25 November 1738 3 November 1766) was a German

Germany

Mathematician

A mathematician is a person whose primary area of study and/or research is the field of mathematics....
and writer.

Born in Ulm

Ulm

Frederick II of Prussia

Battle of Kunersdorf

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing was a Germany writer, philosopher, dramatist, publicist, and art critic, and one of the most outstanding representatives of the Enlightenment era....
. He contributed a large number of historical, political, esthetical and philosophical essays. Abbt was a fervent admirer of Lessing and seconded his educational, prosaic style of writing.

In autumn 1761 he was appointed as the full professor of mathematics in Rinteln

Rinteln

Rinteln is a small town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is located on the banks of the Weser river above the Porta Westfalica. Population: 28,500....
. While there, he wrote his other famous work, Vom Verdienste (1765).

He travelled for nine months to France

France

France , officially the French Republic , is a country whose Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various Overseas departments and territories of France....
, where he was able to speak with Voltaire

Voltaire

Fran?ois-Marie Arouet , better known by the pen name Voltaire, was a French Age of Enlightenment writer, essayist, and philosophy known for his wit, philosophical sport, and defense of civil liberty, including freedom of religion and free trade....
in Ferney. He also climbed in the alps of Savoy

Savoy

Savoy is a region of Europe on the western flank of the Alps that emerged following the collapse of the Frankish Empire Kingdom of Burgundy. Installed by Rudolph III, King of Burgundy, officially in 1003, the House of Savoy became the longest surviving royal house in Europe....
. This travel and the disapproval of the life at the university raised his urge to trade the Theory for the Life.

While dealing with the idea to become a historian, he was offered in 1765 at the same time a professorship at the University of Marburg and a post as Councillor of the Court at the court of Count Wilhelm von Schaumburg-Lippe. He decided for the latter. The count was highly interested in the plans of Thomas Abbt, which included a history of Maximilian

Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor

Maximilian I of Habsburg was Holy Roman Empire from 1508 until his death, but had ruled jointly with his father for the last ten years of his reign, from circa 1483....
and a translation of Sallust

Sallust

For the philosopher, see Sallustius; for other uses, see Sallust .Gaius Sallustius Crispus, generally known simply as Sallust, , a Roman Republic historian, belonged to a well-known plebeian family, and was born at Amiternum in the country of the Sabines....
among others.

However in 1766, the twenty-seven year old Abbt suddenly died of an intestinal illness in Bückeburg

Bückeburg

B?ckeburg is a small town in Lower Saxony, Germany, on the border with North Rhine Westphalia. It was once the capital of the tiny principality of Schaumburg-Lippe and is today located in the district of Schaumburg close to the northern slopes of the Weserbergland ridge....
. Of him Herder

Johann Gottfried Herder

Johann Gottfried von Herder was a Germany philosophy, Theology, poet, and literary critic. He is associated with the periods of Age of Enlightenment, Sturm und Drang, and Weimar Classicism....
wrote that he "died for Germany and for his language too early!"

Sources

Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie - online version at Wikisource
Wikisource

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